A parent's problems with time management can have far-reaching consequences for their young child, say members of the Camden Early Years Intervention Team
One of the problems our team has encountered when working with individual children in a nursery setting is in supporting those whose families who have a persistent difficulty with attendance and punctuality. We also know that some families find it hard to attend clinic appointments, or our review meetings. Children with a poor record of attendance or punctuality in the early years may be at risk of continuing this pattern throughout their education.
Poor attendance and punctuality can sometimes be associated with a child's social and educational underachievement. We know that young children benefit from having a structure or routine in their day. It helps them to feel secure, because they can predict what is going to happen.
Children can learn to follow the timetable of the day without necessarily being able to comprehend all the associated instructions or information. This security frees their minds to learn and to focus on the content of an activity. For example, if fruit always comes after the good morning song, you can focus on which fruit it is that day and what it's called, rather than worrying about what happens next.
Of course, we cannot lay the blame for lack of punctuality or non-attendance at the feet of young children, who depend on their parents or carers to bring them to nursery or school on time every day. Exploring these issues with the parent can be a way of identifying a lack of consistency in a child's experiences. Our team has encountered a number of families where a child has been referred to us for specific help, but where attendance and punctuality have emerged as factors that might really be contributing to the child's difficulties.
Out in the cold
Ellie was usually the last child to arrive at her nursery. She could often be observed standing in the doorway of the classroom, her hand clutching at her mother Ann's jacket, watching the other children as they played. Sometimes she would protest vigorously as her mother left the building. It could take her key worker half an hour to calm and then settle Ellie at an activity.
Staff described four-year-old Ellie as an anxious little girl, who experienced difficulties in relating to her peers. She had been observed on a number of occasions standing at the edge of other children's games, unsure about how to 'join in' with them.
Ellie was attending one of the team's weekly social skills groups based within the nursery. Because she was frequently brought to the nursery late, she had missed some of the sessions. One week the team organised a later starting time in order to ensure that Ellie would be able to attend, but this was not really addressing the other problem of her punctuality. She was missing out on the critical time in the day when social bonds were formed between different children.
A meeting was organised with our educational psychologist, Ellie's key worker and her mother Ann, where we heard about the progress that Ellie was making in the group, benefiting from the predictable structure and routine.
The key worker used observations that had been made of Ellie to highlight her strengths and also her difficulties with social situations. The key worker emphasised how important it was that Ellie arrived earlier at the nursery in order to give her the opportunity to start the day alongside her peers.
Ann was able to tell us that, at home, she was having real difficulties with getting Ellie out of bed, dressed and ready for nursery on time. She owned up to being a late riser herself, recalling her own childhood and adolescence being brought up in a large, loving but chaotic extended family. Ann was also responsible for supporting her elderly parents and had had to take Ellie along to her parents' doctors' appointments.
A member of the team had already consulted with a colleague in the education welfare office, who gave advice and examples of ways in which schools monitored attendance and punctuality. In the meeting we were able to draw Ann's attention to this information and what it might mean for Ann once Ellie had started school. With this information in mind, Ann was able to start thinking about how she might prepare herself and Ellie. We then agreed a joint plan of how to support them both.
Through working with and understanding the reasons why some families have persistent difficulties with attendance and punctuality, it may be possible to effect some changes. If the adult's own childhood experience was of arriving late at school and feeling nervous and miserable at the start of the day, they might have low expectations for their child.
Once Ann could see the repeating pattern, she valued the extra support on arrival in the mornings. We primed staff to be especially welcoming when they arrived and even joked about giving Ann a star chart for being on time.
Flapping routine
Other parents respond to other ideas. Melissa, for example, found it difficult to comply with her mother's very busy morning schedule. As the eldest of four children aged under five, she had learned that dilly-dallying could get her more attention. Melissa's mother and the team designed a 'lift the flap' visual timetable of the morning routine. It was Melissa's job to lift the flap when each task was done.
By designing this timetable together, we involved the mother in the 'plan-do-review' cycle familiar to many early years practitioners. This gave her the skills to change the routine as the children grew, and her role changed from 'directing' to 'overseeing'.
TV times
Amina and Suleman began to attend a small group we offered to parents about 'parenting'. This voluntary course of four sessions was a chance for parents, especially those without local relatives to support them, to discuss ideas they had devised to deal with everyday situations.
Jigdesh had learned how to switch on the television, and his parents found it hard to tear him away from the morning cartoons and engage him in getting ready for nursery without a fight. Through sharing and mutual support, Amina and Suleman were able to see that they were not 'bad parents', and that everyone finds something difficult.
Another parent had used the video to record their child's favourite programme, which he was allowed to watch if he was ready for nursery in time. Jigdesh was able to work towards the TV as a reward, rather than a trigger for a temper tantrum, and he and his parents both got what they wanted!
Each of these methods took time to establish and to show an improvement in the child's attendance. But there was a noticeable growth in all three children's self-confidence, and consequently their ability to learn.
Team effort
Meanwhile, the team's inclusion teacher met with nursery staff to discuss activities and strategies that could be employed to support Ellie in developing her social skills. Consideration was also given to how to engage Ellie in the nursery if she arrived late.
To accommodate the staffing, rotas and shift systems, two of the team undertook the responsibility for being available alternately to greet Ellie. It was decided that she should be given a limited choice of activities at the point when she separated from her mother. The choice of activities would be based on those she had been observed showing a preference for. A simple visual timetable was produced for Ellie that included a photograph of her that she could stick on the board to let everyone know she had arrived. If Ellie was brought in late, no mention of this was to be made in front of her.
Once Ellie had settled in the nursery, she was to be encouraged to participate in a range of social activities, including singing and story times, role play, circle time and turn-taking games. It was hoped that with increasing confidence and improved punctuality, Ellie would not need to rely on either adults or the visual timetable to start her day.
With the support and advice that she had been given, Ann began to make a real effort to bring Ellie to nursery on time. Of course, there were still the occasional instances of lateness, and we all had to accept that resolving the issues in Ann's own family were not within our remit. But Ann had clearly begun to reflect upon her responsibilities for supporting and educating her child.
When the time came to choose a school place for Ellie, Ann chose one which was, as she put it, 'on our doorstep'. She said, 'That way I've really got no excuse for bringing her in late!'
